November 2017 Check In Thread

I know you are all hard at work with your credit goals. Have you progressed as far as you hoped? Were there any unforseen expenses that cropped up and may have thrown you off schedule?

As a reminder, participation in these monthly checkins is optional, but encouraged. The goal is to help keep you on track, so feel free to post your progress updates here. This is a no-judge zone; feel free to say what's keeping you up at night or give yourself a kudo for having it all together.

Did you hit any potholes or speedbumps? Achieve some milestones, either small or mighty? Change your goals or add new ones?

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

October ended with a tiny bang and started with a big one! Approved for US Bank Cash+ card Oct 30th, then Amex BCP November 1st. Already printed my monthly "credit usage laminate" to put in my wallet to remind me what card to use and where -- SUPER helpful. My laminate also lists that month's budget for that category so at least I think twice before spending.

My goal in November is gardening, negotiating a future possible tax lien, and working on my credit utilization web calculator to share with others in the future.

I really "need" some CLIs soon because so far only Amazon store card has done me anything ($400->$5000->$6000) and since I have nothing to app for at all (waiting for Chase CSR approval possibilities in the future), some CLIs would at least help me see that current lenders see my improving credit.

I have looked at a few people's credit score growth they shared with me and I feel very confident I'll be in the 760s by this time next year except for TU which refuses to delete an unpaid tax lien. Still, if I can get into the 760s at the same time my AAoA goes over 2 years, I think I'll be "done" completely with my credit rebuild, which started this year in March 2017. My primary credit goal in March was to get the Amex BCP by March 2019 and I got it this year, so my only real goal for 2 years was met quite early.

My other goal was to get my insurance rates way down -- being a landlord and multiple property owner means I pay a lot in insurance and I am constantly spending 1-2 hours a week looking for reductions. My primary insurer told me that getting my credit to 680 would reduce my rates and getting above 720 would reduce it more, but they didn't know which bureau or score is used so I need to get to 720x3 across the board and all flavors of FICO for sure.

One thing I do to reduce insurance is to co-insure, meaning I raise my deductibles when I have enough in savings to cover an emergency. In the past 9 years, I had one insurable emergency and ended up paying it out of pocket ($3500) instead of filing a claim. I save a ton on insurance rates, roll the savings into an investment portfolio and can liquidate those investments if I need the cash. My goal for 2018 is to get that investment portfolio up to $10,000 so I can max out my deductibles to their limits.

Credit wise I am at about $16,400 in CLs and run a balance of either $5 or $50 on one card. My goal for total CLs is 20x my monthly spend which averages about $7000/month so I want to have $140,000 in CLs by some point in 2019. I bet I can do it just organically, but I have no issue wasting inquiries in the future to get new Capital One cards to merge the limits into my current ones, or other banks that allow that (Chase is one).

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

Everything is going well so far since I started my journey to repair my credit. I didn't have severely bad credit but it needed some work. At least I thought so. My high card balances, misses payment and one collection account was hurting me. I've been paying on time for the pass 1 yrs. The main reason I needed to get my credit in order was to purchase a home. I’ve been paying someone else mortgage for 10yrs. Fast forward since 4/22/17. I was able to get a pre-qualification letter. This enables me to sign a contract to build my first home. After sitting down with a Mortgage Broker/Financial Adviser and this site my score continues to rise. My tentative closing date is 15 February 2018. I’m praying that everything falls in to place. This gives me time to pay down my credit card balances more.

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

Doing better then I thought I would this fast. Two months ago I got a cap 1 secured card 99 for 200$ credit limit. In Oct. I got a discover secured card $200 limit. I did some Pre-Approved apps in oct and on Nov.1 I got a Pre-Approved email from credit 1 for an unsecured card 300$ limit. My credit score is up an average of 15 points in 2 months. I am not sure before that because I only got the Fico scores 2 months ago so the numbers I was using before that were not as accurate. I hardly use my cards so my credit usage is great! All I have to do now it wait and pay my bills online

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

1). To garden the cards I got last year post-BK, letting those tradelines age and grow. without opening any new tradelines. I've been in the garden since 9/7/17, and still going strong.

Almost forgot, I finally was able to close my original Cap1 QS Platinum and combine the limit into my QS WEMC. Feels good to prune a starter card!

2). To continue to manage utilization and reported balances.Currently27.2%.

3). To watch my inquiries drop.EQ 5, TU 9, EX 11, all within the last two years. All inquiries are post-BK. On January 1, inquiries less than one year old will be EQ 2, TU 5, EX 7.

4). To pay an extra $100/month on my highest balance and highest interest student loan, which is upside down due to interest accruing while in deferment (I know I should have paid it as I went, but the BK and events leading up to didn't allow for that). Still putting $100 per month extra toward my highest student loan balance. When I started putting the extra $100 per month, it was at 102.67%, now down to 97.58%. High utilization was 116.89% right after I filed BK, and capitalized interest hit (it had been in deferment until then). I honestly didn't realize how far I'd already brought it down just making the regular payments.

5). To continue saving about 10% of my gross income each month.Still going strong, saving 12.7% of my gross income each month! Gotta love direct deposit into an online savings account. Makes it easy!

Would still like to see one or more of my scores hit 700 by the end of the year at least. BK two year anniversary is November , so I'm not gonna make 700, but I hope to by the middle of next year, being in the garden.

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

So, I started this month with pretty decent scores. But, it was definitely time to get myself a car. I've been without one since 5/24/17, when it was totalled. I bought my daugter a car back in July so, I thought I'd better hold out for as long as possible to get mine. I felt pretty confident with all of my scores being over 720, which is top tier with Lexus. So, I leased my car a couple days ago.

Then, I thought I'd better app for the cards that I want before the dealership inquiries hit. I actually only got 2 inquiries but, I expected more since my daughter's car purchase hit me with 10+. So, I app'd and received:

Ameriprise Platinum AMEX

AMEX PRG

AMEX BCP $1000

NFCU AMEX $15,000

Discover It Cash $1000

and CLI on my NFCU Signature Cash Rewards from $7000 to $14000

I am officially headed to the garden to hide while the dust settles on all of that activity.

So far, my Equifax and Experian scores have both dropped 8 points. Not bad. But, that's so far.

My goal last month was to get my scores to 760. I did that with EQ and close with TU but, now, my goal for this month is to garden, hope the fallout doesn't set me back too much and that I can rebound.

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

Great job! How did you get such high numbers so fast? I would love any info you would share. I have been working on my score for a few months with pretty good success but you got over 100 points in 6 months.

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

Another late reply to the thread (life has been awkward and strange) but things are still fine.

Have recently made the decision to close (almost) anything that doesn't support autopay or have a robust notification system (JCB as one such example); I wasn't really using the account for much anyway so it doesn't really matter. Planning to keep the DCU secured card but I can fix their notification system JCB's in the running for most user unfriendly interface on the planet for their USA division: bye Felicia.

Beyond that, managed to reach 90.06% on one of my smaller limits for a downpayment on dental work, took a small ding on that but it'll get fixed next month. Prettying up for my January annual 3B pull.

Couple inquiries coming off in December from EX, then I have the one remaining inquiry on EQ from January and my last opened account also transitions over a year at that point, and that's it besides random balances for things that I can control with regards to improving my credit in the near term (a CFA falls off in 2022, silly mistake when rebuilding) and beyond that it's just the usual: pay on time, always at least the minimum, every time... so just putting it on autopilot as much as possible and focusing on other areas of my life instead.

Re: November 2017 Check In Thread

Hey everyone. SO I'm new here, I just got my FICO account last week. What I need to know is how I go about paying off debts when I owe multiple people. I have repos, students loans, a credit card, and attorney fees that I need to pay back that are the brunt of my debt. I was told to pay them back something a few times a month, even if it's as little as ten bucks. How do I start?

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Many factors affect your FICO Scores and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating.
FTC's website on credit.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, along with additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more about other FICO Score versions.

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Score and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.